Uh oh...now life gets serious...

Hey folks, it's me...the fat boy who WAS going to lose all kinds of weight and get fit.

Remember?

If not, just scroll through my old blog postings, where I chronicled my amazing journey to weight loss, fitness....and failure.

A quick refresher.

I started last year, I think around the first of March, with the goal of losing 100 pounds. That's a lot, but I weighed in that day at 279 -- and I'm only 5'10". Heck, even at 179, I'd still weigh almost 30 pounds more than I did at my old high school graduation (more on that later).

Of course, I'm cursed with being the King of Yo-Yo dieting. If you look up that phrase in the dictionary, you may very well see my picture. It's nothing for me to drop 15-20 pounds in a month, only to gain it back the next month, and then some.

But 2016 was going to be different! First, I had never weighed that much, and something just had to give. I felt bad all the time, my blood pressure was through the roof, and it was just no fun being that big.

Second, I was going to do this handy dandy little blog, chronicling my efforts -- no, my success -- along the way. What was even cooler was getting a few tweets and comments from Mark Webster. Those of you who read my blog regularly back then (my sisters, my children, once or twice my wife) remember him as the Dude Who Ate (And Worked Out) Like The Rock For 30 Days.

So I was set, inspired, and rolling -- dropping 45 pounds in 60 days. And then...nothing.

No, worse than nothing. I started the ever-dreadful regain of the weight. I made a couple of half-hearted attempts at getting back on it, but I just got lazy, started eating bad, quit working out, and not only did I regain every single pound but...yes, you know what's coming ...I gained EVEN MORE. A few weeks ago I topped out at 298 pounds, if you can believe that.

Thiiiiissssss close to 300.

I've dropped off some since then, seemed to have settled around 285 pounds, but wowzers, that's just too much weight. Still, I haven't managed to get myself to any kind of consistent healthy eating plan, I'm not doing any cardio, though I have been hitting the weights some.

But then it happened. The notice that changed everything.

I discovered vanity.

Okay, let me explain. This morning, I received a FB message from an old friend from high school, a guy I graduated with. It was a group message, with a handful of us on it. Seems my alma mater -- Roanoke Valley Christian School -- will be marking 40 years since its first graduating class.

Let me take a moment to emphasize this is NOT 40 years since I graduate, but 40 years since the school held its first-ever graduation. We don't want any misunderstandings here.

Anyway, this friend, who I shall call...I don't know, maybe "Lewis," was asking out help in collecting the whereabouts of old RVCS alum, and in the course of the group message -- which kept growing during the day as we found more of us on FB -- someone suggested we have a reunion of our graduating class.

Well, that seems like a swell idea. Other than a dozen or so of us getting together a year or so after we graduated, we haven't had any kind of get together. Being a rather small group -- our class only had 25 students -- we were fairly tight-knit at the time, though we drifted apart relatively quickly.

Then it dawned on me -- no one will recognize me because there are freaking TWO of me now. I mean, I'm nearly twice as large as one my graduation day, when I came in at a svelte 150 pounds.

Given that the school's graduation is June 2, and any reunion we have would probably be around that date, I am in full panic mode! This is, after all, March 27. That's only 66 days away.

You better believe, I've spent my spare time today hopping around the net, looking for the miracle fitness plans that melt 80 pounds in 60 days. Yeah, yeah, I know, I'd still need to drop another 20 to 30 pounds, but hey, let's not go overboard -- 100 pounds in 60 days might be just a tad unreasonable.

So, my search for the 80-pound-loss-in-60-day plan took me to...well, it's late, this has gone on really long, so check back with me tomorrow when I share the miracle plan I found.

See ya then, and thanks for checking in after all these months...

I did it -- 30 consecutive days of eating clean!

Yesterday, Wednesday, May 11 was my 30th consecutive day of eating clean.

Some of you may recall the blog I mentioned when I started this. For a quick recap, I had just completed my first month of the weight loss efforts, and had lost a little more than 21 pounds and was doing a little bit of a happy dance. Actually, if you count the weigh-in just two days before I started my diet, my loss was closer to 23 pounds. That was about 23 pounds in 32 days.

I did that mostly through restricting calories a fair bit, eating mostly healthy foods, working out with weights consistently and doing cardio three or four days a week. On the eating front, I had maybe three off-days (and an off-night), when I didn't count calories or worry about what I was eating -- I just chowed down on whatever I wanted.

I decided to change things up just a little at the conclusion of those first 30 days. After a day off of eating whatever the heck I wanted, I dove into Month Two, this time determined to eat clean every single day, not even taking off or a bad snack. Never in my life had I eaten absolutely clean for more than two weeks at a time, so I felt like this was a pretty significant challenge, although once in the midst of it I found sticking to the plan surprisingly easy. Even though I had the occasional stray craving (hot wings, pizza, Big Macs), I was never really tempted to go off the 30-day plan.

I had also decided to actually increase my food intake on a daily basis, all in the form of more lean protein, more complex and healthy carbs, and more veggies, with very little in the way of processed food. That's the one area I fell down a bit -- not eating enough. Overall my daily average of calories was a little higher the second month, but there were a few days where I simply didn't eat more than 1,200 to 1,300 calories, and there were quite a few where I didn't go over 1,500 calories.

Still, i can't complain too much. In addition to really dropping the weight, I continued making improvements in my weight workouts, adding a fourth day each week to the weight training, and I experience strength gains in the weight room, as measured by being able to do more weight, for the same number of sets and reps, in most of my exercises.

I've also experienced increases in how hard and how long I can do on cardio workouts, so I'm guessing the calorie restrictions haven't hurt me too badly, while allowing.

The most amazing part of the second 30 days? Continued weight loss at a pretty good rate. As of yesterday, I was at 238.2 pounds, down exactly 18 pounds from the weigh-in at the end of Month 1. After dropping 23 pounds the first month, I really didn't expect to lost more than 12 or so pounds the second month.

I attribute that fast second-month loss to lots of working out and staying absolutely clean in my eating for the full 30 days.

Other changes I've noticed from 30 days of eating clean?
- My blood pressure has dropped. That first month it fell just a bit, but over the course of this second month it's dropped quite a bit. That could simply be the cumulative effect of all the weight loss, but I suspect it has a lot more to do with eliminating bad food, eating healthy, and cutting out most sodium from my diet.

- Headaches have disappeared. I've been plagued with the occasional migraine headache off and on over most of my life, since I was a teen-age. In recent years, those headaches had become much more frequent. I don't mean to suggest every day, or even every week, but they had become part of my life, sometimes lasting two or three days. Some were from lack of sleep and I suspect some were blood pressure related. Other than the one that came with my cold a couple of weeks ago, I don't know that I've had a single one this month, and I didn't have many last month.

- More energy, higher level of focus. I've written several times that I have many bad habits to change, and one of those is staying up far too late, getting far too little sleep. I'm making some progress in this regard, but i still don't get a healthy amount of sleep. However, I've found that I have more energy, more focus at work, and can more readily go on less sleep (not that I should). This might be a result of the overall increase in fitness or the cumulative effect of the weight loss, but I also have to believe it's from fueling up the body properly.

- Just a general better feeling all the time. I don't ever have that "too full" feeling, or never feel listless or bloated or any of the things that can sometimes follow a big meal, or bad food.

I'm sure there are others, but man -- these alone are reason enough to stick with clean eating on a consistent, long-term basis, even without the weight loss.

So, what's next? I don't know. I was going to write that I'm going to finish out the week strict and clean in my diet, but my wife showed up tonight, just about the time I walked in from the gym starving, with Pizza Hut pizzas. I, of course, had not planned anything for dinner and there was nothing within an hour of being ready, so I went ahead and broke the consecutive clean eating streak at 30 -1/2 days.

We celebrate my youngest child's birthday this weekend -- her 15th! -- so there will probably be some cake and ice cream involved. And my middle child has his 21st birthday ten days afterward, so there might be some more cake and ice cream and bad food on the menu. Outside of that, I don't know that there's any reason to change my eating from what it's been until Memorial Day. That'll be up to three off days between now and the end of the month. Other than that, I'm going to stick with the clean eating.

Why would I do anything else, with the results I've seen?

Anyway, that's my really looong post for today. Now, for my workout and eating today:

Workout
Cardio
Stationary bike
36 minutes, 15 minutes at level 6, the rest at level 5
12 miles
425 calories burned

Today's eating

Breakfast
Coffee
Eggs 1 whole, 2 whites
Lean ham -- 1 ounce

Lunch
Boiled chicken breast -- 4 ounces
Mixed veggies -- 1/2 cup
Fat free Greek Yogurt

Snack
Fat free Greek Yogurt

First dinner
Boiled chick breast -- 4 ounces
Mixed veggies -- 1/2 cup

Snack
Power bar

Rest of the evening -- Pizza!

Totals WITHOUT the pizza
835 calories
16 grams fat
100 grams protein

Water -- 80 ounces
Diet soda -- 24 ounces

With the pizza? Who the heck knows. Anyway, tomorrow it's back on the wagon.

Thanks for stopping by!

Yet another milestone, and so much to say!

Over the past few days I've had a great deal I wanted to write here about my weight loss, a few articles I've read about weight loss in general, and a study that shows a bleak future for those of us who are a little more rotund than we'd like.

My biggest obstacle in all of that is simply time. Long hours at work, writing at home, working out, doing things with the family, and trying to squeeze in a little sleep tends to leave the blogging time in short supply.

So today I'll just tell you I've reached another milestone in the long saga of the belt. Yep, that little leather strip meant to help hold my pants up, the one I couldn't even come close to wearing just nine short weeks ago, the one that even the wise old Mr. Miyagi thought had no significance, is now holding my pants in place while buckled on the fifth hole (with the sixth and final hole being the tightest setting).

I've had this belt for a couple of years, ever since I outgrew the last one, so it's kinda fun to see myself actually shrinking to the point I might not be able to use it much more.

Of course, with every milestone, there's a reminder I still have a long, long way to go. Remember when I talked about the Danger Zone of Dieting (also known as The Delusional Zone)? You can click on the link to see what I'm talking about, but in short, that's the time when you start to feel really good about your weight loss, you're noticing differences, seeing major progress, and you start to think you're thinner and more fit than you really are.

That's why I call it the Delusional Zone. It's also a dangerous time, because it's far, far too easy to figure you'll just skip a workout because, you know, you're tired, you want to do other stuff, and you've done so well it's not going to be a big deal. Or, you might decided to take an extra meal off the diet, or an extra day -- again, because you're doing so well, dropping all that weight, have gotten so skinny.

Well, I've felt that little bit of delusion creeping in here and there lately. It's been easy enough to hold it at arm's length because I had committed to 30 days of clean eating, with no off meals or days, so going off the eating plan simply wasn't a temptation. And other than altering plans for the weekend of my daughter's college graduation and Mother's Day (which actually turned into taking care of the sick wife day), I had determined I'd do workouts of various sorts at least six days every week during the 30-day period. So, in that respect, it was also easy to avoid falling off the workout plan.

So what's the little fail-safe now?

Pictures.

Let's face it, when you drop 40 pounds, that's a lot of weight, and I'm closing in on the 40-pound mark. When you have clothes that you couldn't wear because they were too small that are now actually too big, that's a lot of positive change.

But, when you're 40 to 50 pounds overweight, that's just awful. I mean, who wants to carry around an extra 40 pounds of fat every day? Who wants the damage that does to your heart, you joints, and the other issues that come with being that far overweight?

And there's nothing like seeing pictures of yourself for a really good, semi-objective view of what you really look like, and how far you still have to go.

So, yeah, seeing myself in the mirror and how much I've lost, feeling the clothes get loose and knowing I'm making progress is great, but for now I'm still trying to focus on where I really am in relation to where I need to go -- and I'm still a long way toward really being able to get comfortable with my weight and fitness level.

Now for today's action:

Workout
Cardio
Stationary bike -- 53 minutes, all on level 5
18.5 miles
730 calories

Eating for the day

Breakfast
Coffee

Lunch
Lean ground beef -- 3 ounces
Bake potato -- 4.5 ounces
Mixed veggies -- 3/4 cup

Snack
Lean ground beef -- 2 ounces
Cheese -- 1/8 cup
Salsa -- 1 tablespoon
Salad

First Dinner
Lean pork -- 4 ounces
Mixed veggies -- 3/4 up

Second Dinner
Lean ground beef -- 1 ounce
Kidney beans -- 1/2 cup
Cheese -- 1/4 cup
Salsa -- 2 tablespoons
Two whole wheat tortilla wraps

Totals for the day
1,100 calories
42 grams of fat
107 grams protein

Water -- 80 ounces
Diet soda -- 24 ounces

Thanks for stopping by!

Eating Clean Isn't Always The Same As Eating Healthy

Today didn't go anywhere near as planned.

As you may know from past blogs, we had planned a big Mother's Day celebration with my wife and most of our kids (our oldest and her husband were going to be gone, but the rest would be here).

That changed about 3 in the morning, when my wife woke up sick ... REALLY sick, as in losing throwing up, fever, aching -- all the bad stuff.

So, Mother's Day celebration in our house, including eating out at one of my wife's favorite restaurants, has been put on hold. We still had the crew in, and I grilled chicken breasts, hamburgers and hot dogs, along with baked potatoes. I, of course, passed up the hot dogs, and I had a hamburger, but it was that super-lean, 95-percent ground beef, with no mayo, no ketch-up, none of the bad stuff. Just a slice of tomato.

I have to say that made it a little easier to stick to the cleaning eating plan, but it certainly was not the way I'd want. 

Even though I stuck with the clean eating both yesterday for my daughter's graduation, and today with the muted Mother's Day gathering, I can't say I ate exactly healthy. Eating healthy means regular, small meals, every two-and-a-half to three hours. Healthy meals with lean protein, veggies, complex carbs. And it means a heck of a lot more protein than I took in.

Saturday I took in more calories than any other day since I started the 30-day clean eating program, and the bulk of that was in one meal. Again, today, I actually only ate twice. Not exactly the way I should be eating, I know, but I can still honestly say I'm still on my 30-day healthy eating plan (just three more days to go as I write this)!

Anyway, here's the scoop from the past couple of days. No working out either day, as planned, although, I bet I walked a solid 30 minutes, at a decent pace, before and after my daughter's graduation -- most of it before. Walking from the parking lot to the building where the ceremony was held; walking from there afterward across campus to the building where a "little" reception was planned, but we skipped it after seeing a line a mile long; followed by walking to the campus Starbucks because we have two Starbucks addicts among our family;  then walking all the way across campus to get back to our car. So maybe, just maybe that counts as a teeny tiny bit of cardio?

Saturday, May 7.

Breakfast

Coffee

Fat Free Greek Yogurt

Lunch

Small, tiny, little burger of lean meat

Bun

Tomato/lettuce

Dinner

New York Strip Steak -- 5 ounces

Rice -- 1-1/2 cup

Veggies -- 1-1/2 cup

Shrimp -- just a handful

All cooked in sesame and soy oil

Chicken broth soup with mushrooms

Salad (tomatoes, lettuce, onions)

Salad dressing -- 2 tablespoons

Snack

Raisin Bran

Soy milk

Totals for the day--1,730 calories

56 grams fat

90 grams protein (way, way too low.

Water -- 65 ounces

Diet soda -- 24 ounces 

SUNDAY

Breakfast -- nothing, skipped it

Lunch

Super-lean hamburger meat -- 5 ounces

Whole wheat hamburger bun

Provolone cheese

Baked potato -- 6 ounces

Diet butter -- 1 tablespoon

Dinner

Lean pork -- 4.25 ounces

Provolone cheese

Rye bread (2 slices)

1,035 calories

38 grams of fat

90 grams of protein (again, far too little)

Water 60 ounces

Diet Soda -- 24 ounces

21 Straight Days Eating Clean....

Yep, it was exactly three weeks ago today when I started my 30 consecutive days of clean eating, which came on the heels of dropping 21 pounds during the previous month. That first month, of course, I ate pretty low-calorie most days, with what amounted to an off day each week, where I ate whatever I wanted.

This second 30 days I decided to go with no off-days, staying clean the entire month, while concentrating on eating a little more in the way of complex carbs each day. I was a little worried that eating clean -- and eating more food -- would end up slowing my weight loss, but that hasn't proven to be a problem. While I didn't weigh today, last week I crossed the 246-pound mark (245.8 pounds on April 29) which means I'd already dropped more than another ten pounds about 18 days into the clean-eating month. My goal this month was to drop another 14, and I'm closing in on that.

Okay, that's a lot of numbers. I guess the long and short of it is I'm still losing weight at a pretty decent rate, though admittedly I've not been eating as much as I had planned so far during the second month of my weight loss efforts.

Today was also the day I promised to give you an update on the legs -- I did go a little harder in some respects yesterday, and I have had some soreness today, but nothing like the past couple of weeks, and I've certainly not been as worn out today as last Monday, so maybe the idea of no cardio on leg day (Sunday) along with eating a little more after the leg workout is helping.

Oh, and one note on the bike that's now measuring in kilometers instead of miles: another guy who works out at the gym and uses the bike a lot stopped me and asked if I had noticed the bike measuring "funny," (you might recall a couple of days ago I mentioned the one stationary bike the gym now appeared to be measuring in kilometers instead of miles.) Seems he's kind of frustrated, too, that no one at the Carroll Wellness Center much cares about getting anything working properly because of this long-promised all-new cardio equipment upgrade. We'll see...

Cardio
Stationary Bike
50 minutes
28.5 "miles" (which I think should be kilometers because of the screwy, broken bike at the gym -- which would actually be just a shade under 18 miles if they would fix the bike)
685 calories

Workout
Back and biceps

Seated Row
130 pounds -- 1 set, 10 reps
200 pounds -- 2 sets, 10 reps each

Wide-grip seated row
160 pounds -- 2 sets, 8 reps each

Lat Pulldowns
90 pounds -- 2 sets, 10 reps each
NOTE: This is the first time in a while I've done regular lat pulldowns, because the angle I hold the bar stresses the forearm. Thought I'd give it a try tonight, and things seem to have gone okay, though I have to use lighter weight, and just go really, really slow and controlled to make the work harder,

Biceps
Curl-bar curls
40 pounds -- 1 set, 10 reps
60 pounds -- 1 set, 10 reps
Note: The forearm felt okay tonight, even with a little more weight. If all continues well, I may try adding a third set next time.

Abs
Machine seated crunch
125 pounds
1 set, 15 reps
1 set, 12 reps

As for the food, here was what I took in today:

Breakfast
Coffee
Eggs -- 1 whole, 2 whites

Centercut lean pork loin -- 5 ounces
Rice -- 2/3 cup cooked
Mixed veggies -- 2/3 cup

Snack
4 ounces chicken breast, cook in olive oil
Lettuice/spinach salad mix

Snack 2
Fat free Greek yogurt

Dinner
Sesame chicken (i serving whole wheat noodles, 5 ounces chicken breast, sesame oil)

Snack
Raisin bran (1 cup)
Almond Milk -- 1 cup

Totals for the day

1,420 calories
46 grams fat
121 grams protein

Far too low on protein, high on carbs today.

Water -- 95 ounces
Diet soda -- 24 ounces

Well, that's about it for Monday. Thanks for stopping by. Keep checking in -- one day this week I'm going to blog about new studies that show scientifically why people who lose weight often have trouble keeping it off -- through no fault of their own.